{"id":6237,"date":"2022-04-20T18:51:59","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T15:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/?p=6237"},"modified":"2022-04-20T18:53:44","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T15:53:44","slug":"courageous-and-victorious-despite-five-year-ban-in-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/courageous-and-victorious-despite-five-year-ban-in-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Courageous and Victorious Despite Five-Year Ban in Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"p2\" class=\"p2 disableActiveState jsHasHighlightListener\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-pid=\"2\">April\u00a020, 2022, will mark the fifth anniversary of\u00a0Russia\u2019s unjust ban on the activities of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses.<span id=\"footnotesource1\" class=\"refID\">\u00a0<\/span>Russian authorities have intensified the persecution each year since the ban was established\u2014at times even resorting to\u00a0torture. Yet, as shown by the\u00a0reports on jw.org, our dear brothers and sisters have courageously endured.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6238\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6238\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6238\" src=\"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Judge-Ivanenko.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Judge-Ivanenko.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Judge-Ivanenko-768x384.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Judge-Ivanenko-300x150.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6238\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">April 20, 2017: Judge Ivanenko of Russia\u2019s Supreme Court announces decision to shut down the legal entities of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses in Russia and Crimea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"p3\" class=\"p3 disableActiveState jsHasHighlightListener\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-pid=\"3\">Brother\u00a0Dennis Christensen, who has been behind bars for nearly five years, has set a fine example. Immediately after losing his appeal in May\u00a02019, he calmly and confidently\u00a0spoke\u00a0to all of the brothers and sisters who came to support him in court, saying: \u201cI\u2019ve tried to serve Jehovah the best way that I could. I will do that forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"p4\" class=\"p4 disableActiveState jsHasHighlightListener\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-pid=\"4\">Brother\u00a0Igor Turik\u00a0has the same determination. He recalls meeting Brother\u00a0Nikolay Kalibaba, who was persecuted during the Soviet era. Nikolay taught Igor that trials allow Jehovah\u2019s people to see how he provides assistance. Igor relates, \u201cIt was clear to me that it is a privilege to suffer for the faith.\u201d Igor continues to endure as he serves a seven-year suspended prison sentence.<\/p>\n<p id=\"p5\" class=\"p5 disableActiveState jsHasHighlightListener\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-pid=\"5\">Brother\u00a0Yevgeniy Fedin explains his conviction: \u201cNow is not the time to fight for personal justice. We need to give a witness\u2014Jehovah will restore justice. We are fighting for a blessing . . . These thoughts help me to have the right attitude toward these trials, regardless of their outcome. Each trial is an opportunity to glorify Jehovah and give a witness.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jw.org\/en\/news\/jw\/region\/russia\/Courageous-and-Victorious-Despite-Five-Year-Ban-in-Russia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>continue reading here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April\u00a020, 2022, will mark the fifth anniversary of\u00a0Russia\u2019s unjust ban on the activities of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses.\u00a0Russian authorities have intensified the persecution each year since the ban was established\u2014at times even resorting to\u00a0torture. Yet, as shown&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6240,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6237\/revisions\/6240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}